Minnesota · Nonprofit
The Cookie Cart
The Cookie Cart (Minnesota) receives grants from 94 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,336,052 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($910,679). 63 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $1.5M
- Funders on record
- 94
- Grants received
- $8.3M
- Net assets
- $3.2M
What The Cookie Cart does
Mission
Cookie Cart teaches life, leadership, and employment skills to young people through on-the-job and classroom experiences in nonprofit bakeries.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
On its FY2024 return the organization reported a significant change in how it conducts a program.
Program services did not change from prior year, but expanded the descriptions to reflect audited financial statements.
Its own explanation, from Schedule O of that return (Part III, line 3).
Youth Development: The Organization's employment program is a first job experience designed to build career readiness, leadership, and life skills for teens ages 14-18. Through paid work-based learning, youth gain real-world experience in a supportive, skill-building environment. Participants work up to 9 hours/week during the school year and up to 9-15 hours/week in the summer, engaging in a structured pathway that promotes growth in five key areas: Interpersonal Skills and Critical Thinking, Goal Orientation, Employment Readiness, Citizenship, and Financial Literacy. Cookie Cart's programming typically serves 150-200 young people annually, a majority of which qualify for free or reduced lunch and over 95 percent are from communities of color.
$735,384 spent54% of program spendingProduction: The Organization's bakeries serve as classrooms where youth build essential skills for future success. Young people have the option to obtain industry-recognized certifications, including the Northstar Digital Literacy Certificate, ServSafe Food Handler Certification (MN Dept. of Health standards), and the National Career Readiness Certification (ACT), and they also participate in career exposure activities such as workplace visits, college tours, and career panels, helping them envision and plan for their futures.
$393,354 spent$145,194 earned by the program29% of program spendingCustomer Service and Community Outreach: Provides youth with dynamic opportunities to apply their customer service training in real-world settings. Whether greeting customers at the bakery counter, managing transactions, or representing the Organization at community events, teens practice essential workplace skills such as communication, professionalism, and problem-solving.Youth learn how to promote the Organization's mission and products, especially the signature cookies, by engaging with customers, sharing the story of the organization, and encouraging community support. These experiences help teens understand the importance of brand representation, product knowledge, and relationship building in a business environment.In addition to in-store interactions, youth participate in pop-up shops, tabling events, and corporate outreach, where they gain exposure to marketing strategies and sales techniques. These activities reinforce their understanding of how customer service connects to broader business goals and community impact.By selling cookies and promoting the bakery, youth not only contribute to the sustainability of the Organization, they also build confidence, develop…
$225,919 spent$48,398 earned by the program16% of program spendingCommunity Engagement & Volunteer Impact: Volunteers and employer partners play a vital role in expanding youth horizons. Through mock interviews, workplace visits, and mentorship, volunteers help teens build confidence, network, and explore diverse career paths. These experiences reinforce the belief: "If you can see it, you can dream it.
$15,937 spent1% of program spending
The 4 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $1,370,594.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2017 to 2018, from $4.7M to $6.2M (+32%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2020 10% · 2021 0% · 2024 11% · 2025 6%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
89% of The Cookie Cart’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (82% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 5 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Jacquelyn Carter
Executive Director
Board chair
Willie Harbert
Board Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2022 and FY2023 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 25 funders to 42 funders, grant income rose $284k → $1.5M.
18 of 94 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 30% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of The Cookie Cart’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 94 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
The Cookie Cart has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 11% of grant income, and it takes 9 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 9 funders to its left
48% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund The Cookie Cart.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 18% · 2018 30% · 2019 12% · 2020 27% · 2021 14% · 2022 20% · 2023 17% — broadly stable.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
61% of The Cookie Cart's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 67% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
74% of The Cookie Cart's grant income comes from Minnesota funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.5M arriving through sponsors registered in 13 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
The Cookie Cart's funding base is broadening — from 25 funders to 42 as grant income climbed.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 1,152 youth development nonprofits $1M–$10M, FY2025
Organizations like The Cookie Cart
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Minnesota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
60% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
96%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for The Cookie Cart: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds The Cookie Cart?
- The Cookie Cart (Minnesota) receives grants from 94 organizations whose IRS filings report $8,336,052 to it, the largest being THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION ($910,679). 63 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does The Cookie Cart have?
- IRS filings report 94 organizations giving $8,336,052 in grants to The Cookie Cart, 63 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of The Cookie Cart?
- THE MINNEAPOLIS FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $910,679 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like The Cookie Cart find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Minnesota. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Cookie Cart →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 94 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing